How to Make Your Own Fresh Cut Flower Food

In this article, we share two recipes for making your own preservative mixture, so you can nourish purchased blooms after the packet is used up, as well as your own fresh cut garden blossoms.

Fresh flowers are a joy to have in the house, so why not make them last as long as possible?

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Long-Lasting Arrangements

When I get a market bouquet at the grocery store, there’s usually a damp little packet of crystals rubber-banded to the stems. I fill my vase with water, dump in the contents, and stir.

While the crystals are dissolving, I cut the leaves off the bottoms of the stems so they won’t rot in the water, give each stem a fresh cut on a 45° angle for optimal surface area to take up water, and plunk them in.

Arrangements should last a week or more.

Nurse them along by changing the water daily, giving all the stems a fresh cut so they drink well, trim low leaves to keep them out of the water, and remove any wilted material.

And, keep your lovelies out of direct sunlight.

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All of these actions go a long way toward keeping them fresh for as long as possible. However, without a daily dose of food, even your best efforts may fail to produce optimal results.

Let’s find out what’s in flower food, and why it’s so beneficial.

It’s best to make a fresh batch of solution each day, as the bleach loses its oomph after that because of its reaction with the acid.

Be sure to label any leftover solution as “toxic” and keep it well out of reach of children and pets.

Please Note: These solutions are not recommended for use in metal containers, and they may cause discoloration. A chemical reaction with the metal can adversely affect the solution’s beneficial properties. In addition, bleach may cause stem discoloration.

There are variations of these recipes available on many websites. Instead of bleach, some tout the benefits of using white or apple cider vinegar.

For example, the floral pros at FTD conducted an experiment with cut flower preservation, in which they observed the benefits of vodka, Sprite soda, apple cider vinegar with sugar added, aspirin, and refrigeration.

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They concluded that the apple cider vinegar and sugar combination helped with flower preservation. And, refrigerating an arrangement to which nothing has been added also helps to maintain freshness.

You’re probably noticed that florists often keep their cut flowers and arrangements in refrigerators prior to delivery, and this makes sense!

But there are three drawbacks to using apple cider vinegar in your flower food:

• Its brown color may tint vase water.
• Your arrangements may smell faintly of vinegar.
• The antibacterial properties are inferior to those of bleach.

Using white distilled vinegar as an alternative is not much better. It has a clear color, but its stronger smell may put you off, and its antibacterial properties are also inferior to bleach.

You may have read about adding pennies or vitamin C to vase water to increase the acidity of the water. Results are unsubstantiated, and in the absence of sugar and an adequate bacterial and fungal inhibitor, these are unlikely to have much of an effect anyway.

If You Feed Them, They Will Last

It’s amazing that with a little citrus to acidify and promote water uptake, sugar for carbohydrate energy, and bleach to deter bacteria and fungi, cut flowers may never know they’ve left the ground!

Now that you know how to whip up your own flower food, you can rest assured that your blooms will put on a spectacular show.

Go ahead and order that stunning arrangement, add an adorable market bouquet to your grocery order, or pick whatever’s growing out back, and enjoy well-fed, long-lasting, fresh cut flowers every day!

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Recipe